The Vine and the City

Jonah 4:

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. ² He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴ But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant^[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰ But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

What's important is not that Jonah was happy about the vine or that he was angry at its absence. The city was God's concern all along- even to the extent that He would preserve Jonah's life for three days in a fish.
This emphasis on 'the city' reminds me of a verse in Jeremiah 29:7. The Lord tells the people to pray for the city that they are exiled to 'for if it prospers, you prosper'. Jonah's problem from the beginning is that he didn't like the city of Ninevah (he would probably go beyond not liking it). Beyond that, Jonah's reason for going outside the city was to see if the Lord would bring His warned destruction upon the people. God cares for cities. Even when He provides blessing that seem to 'spring up overnight' or when the same God provides a worm to destroy the vine, God's interest remains on the city.
Along with blessing the name of the Lord in seasons of plenty or want we must make sure to stay focused on the Lord's will; which is much greater that the blessing of a vine that I 'did not tend to or make grow'.